


The Impossible

by astrangerenters



Category: Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato De
Genre: Butlers, Developing Relationship, F/M, Getting Together, Protectiveness, Safehouses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 16:48:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2075616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrangerenters/pseuds/astrangerenters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Kunitachi police station is being targeted by a criminal, Reiko is forced into a safe house with Kageyama to protect her. Being in close quarters with her butler unearths feelings she didn’t even know she had.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Impossible

**Author's Note:**

> For faiee@LJ as part of the JPN for PH fundraiser.
> 
> Takes place post-drama but I haven't seen the movie yet, so there's no spoilers for that.

For the third day in a row, Hosho Reiko knew she would be hearing the protesters’ voices in her dreams. She only allowed the patrolman to walk her halfway from the station, sneaking out the rear entrance like a coward and through the alleyway. From there Reiko completed the rest of the walk on her own, finding Kageyama and the limousine waiting for her near a quiet neighborhood shrine. Thankfully she couldn’t hear the shouts any longer.

Kageyama had only that pitiful look on his face. Since everything had happened, he’d wanted to drive right up to the door and whisk her home, but the last thing she wanted was to be seen leaving the station in the comfort of a limousine. Not after all the efforts she made to conceal the truth about her wealth and status. “I’m fine, Kageyama,” she said with a roll of her eyes, turning around in a circle and wiggling her bag. “See, I’m just fine.”

“There were more out today,” he said, his voice grave. “I watched for a while to ensure things didn’t get out of hand.”

“They’re angry,” Reiko said as he held the door for her. “And they will be for a while.”

It had barely been a week now, but it had been one of the most stressful of Reiko’s career. Usually the Kunitachi police station was relaxed, laid back. They had none of the issues that the downtown divisions had, the high profile cases and corruption to deal with. Sure there were murders, thefts, mysterious occurrences, but their solve rate was very high (much of it thanks to Kageyama’s intuition).

But for the first time in a long time, there’d been a major mishap. An older woman, Sada Kuniko-san, had been brought in for voluntary questioning. Her son stood accused of embezzling funds from his company, a manufacturing firm headquartered in Kunitachi. Unfortunately, while under questioning Sada-san had suddenly had a massive stroke and had died in only a matter of minutes. She’d been in her mid-70’s and in fair health, and somehow, her death had drawn the public’s ire.

It had begun with an Internet posting and had only grown from there. “Kunitachi! Murderers!” the postings said, “Kunitachi, killers of old women! Killers of the innocent!” The tapes recorded during Sada’s questioning revealed that she was calm when it happened, and so was Kazamatsuri-san, who happened to be speaking with her. He’d been midway through one of his obnoxious bragging accounts about Kazamatsuri Motors when the old woman had suddenly fallen ill and collapsed. Reiko had been out in the field questioning people at the manufacturing company when it had all happened.

It was Reiko’s opinion that Kazamatsuri had done everything to try and help her, calling for an ambulance within seconds and staying with Sada-san the entire time. Despite Reiko’s feelings about Inspector Kazamatsuri as an investigator, he’d done absolutely nothing to harm the woman, and he was heartbroken about what had occurred. The Internet commenters and the press thought otherwise. For the last three days, there’d been small but determined crowds outside of the Kunitachi station making their feelings heard. For the last three days, Reiko had entered and exited the station from the rear to avoid being shouted at, to avoid being labeled a “murderer” too, and she just hoped it would end soon.

There was already word that the Sada family was planning to press charges, that bringing Sada-san in for questioning caused her so much stress that it killed her. No matter what the tape’s contents revealed, nobody seemed to be interested in the truth. It was so troublesome that Reiko had a feeling Sada’s son, the embezzler Takanori-san, would be allowed to get away with his obvious crimes in order to get the pressure off of Kunitachi station.

She lay down across the rear seat of the limo, flinging her bag onto the floor. She slipped her glasses off and sighed heavily. “I just want to go to bed.”

“You need to keep up your strength, my lady,” her butler insisted, driving them slowly home. “Can I convince you to eat a small supper at least? A salad?”

She groaned into the seat. There was extra security at the station on account of the protesters outside, officers sent from all over Tokyo to keep the inspectors and officers at Kunitachi safe. The crowds hadn’t done anything violent so far, but there was always risk of it. Reiko spent almost her entire day inside, working on paperwork. She much preferred to be out trying to prevent and solve crimes, not hidden away. But according to the station chief, Superintendent Takemoto, Kunitachi was going to keep to itself as much as necessary until things calmed down.

“I sat at my desk all day,” she whined, wiggling a bit and cracking her back. “I just want to sleep.”

“Then I’ll provide you with room service,” Kageyama insisted.

She offered no complaints, knowing that her stupid, stubborn butler would have the final say in these matters. Much as Reiko had wanted to keep all of it quiet, Kageyama had gone over her head and informed her father about the protests at the police station. Papa already disliked that she was in such a risky line of work, looking for killers and criminals, but Reiko had worked hard to get where she was. A protest wasn’t about to ruin everything she’d worked for.

But her Papa, away on business in South Africa for a few months, was adding to her stress. Since he wasn’t home, he now had Kageyama watching her even more than usual, had him standing outside the police station all day keeping an eye on things. And he was calling her phone every hour to check in on her, even if she was trying to get work done. And then at home, Kageyama did everything but follow her into the bathroom. It was getting truly irritating, seeing his arrogant face every waking moment.

The house was on relatively high alert, the other staff trying to cheer Reiko on every day even as Kageyama ordered increased security. There were already cameras around the house perimeter and a handful more within the mansion. There were intruder detectors, bright lights on the grounds and some sort of futuristic laser thing inside the house her father had gleefully installed over the holidays. Nobody was getting at the Hosho house.

And yet she’d woken that morning to find a chair perched outside her door with a baseball bat beside it. When Reiko had asked Kageyama point blank if he’d foregone sleep to sit outside her room, he hadn’t confirmed or denied it. He’d only given her one of his smug grins. Reiko only liked certain kinds of coddling. This wasn’t it. She was a trained police officer, for goodness sake. She didn’t need any added protection.

She headed upstairs when they arrived, and she could hear Kageyama’s hushed whispers to the other staff about locking up for the night, ensuring that the front gate was closed once the others departed for the evening. On most nights the staff (only a handful to begin with since Kageyama managed most everything himself) left shortly after supper, but now they were arriving earlier and leaving later and her father had ordered a private security company to patrol the grounds overnight. It was very elaborate and highly unnecessary, but her father had only needed to read one “Kunitachi! Murderers!” online posting to make up his mind.

She was still tired, opting not to change for dinner and slipping into a comfortable pair of flannel pajamas. True to his word, Kageyama came knocking within half an hour bearing a tray. Unlike his promised salad, she found an entire meal anyway. Salmon in a dill sauce with steamed asparagus and potatoes. He left the tray in bed with her and returned with a bottle of white wine and a glass, but she held up her hands in protest.

She may have been halfway through her food already, but she shook her head. “That’s enough, truly. I’m not going to starve.”

Kageyama frowned, settling his wine opener back in the pocket of his jacket. “Ayaka-san made a chocolate cake for you…”

She rolled her eyes. Her father had hired on a baker as a Christmas present for Reiko (between that and the lasers he’d had an expensive Christmas), and the woman was going to fatten her up or die trying. “Then you eat the cake or distribute it among the staff. I won’t eat any of it. Too many calories this late!”

And let Kageyama think she was only watching her weight. The truth of the matter was that Reiko had no appetite to speak of and hadn’t since Sada-san had passed away. At breakfast she’d barely managed a slice of toast. In her packed lunch, she’d given away half of it to one of the patrolmen who’d escorted her the night before. And now she was poking at the asparagus with her fork in hopes that Kageyama would let her eat (or not eat) in privacy.

Though Reiko wasn’t that frightened about the protests at Kunitachi, she was upset for the station. The press were spreading misinformation like wildfire. By now, they were probably claiming that Inspector Kazamatsuri had taken out a gun and shot the old woman point blank. It was unfair. Kunitachi did a lot of good work and helped a lot of people. She was proud to work there, even when her superior officer showed up in his obnoxious white suit with a hundred incorrect theories. She hoped things would blow over soon, if only so they could get back to work and could help people once more.

She managed half of her meal before putting the lid back on. Kageyama took the tray from her with a practiced politeness, though she could see the concern in his eyes. “My lady isn’t eating,” he’d snitch on her to her father, and soon enough she’d be barricaded inside the house. Ayaka-san would force feed her cake. It would be terrible all around.

Finally Kageyama gave her some privacy, and she was just about to fall asleep when she heard the key turn in the lock outside. She was locked in, but was too tired to be angry about it.

—

There had been a robbery overnight at a jewelry store, and much as Superintendent Takemoto wished to keep his officers trapped inside the station, he couldn’t afford to. She snuck out the back of the station with Inspector Kazamatsuri and a handful of crime scene technicians. They were police officers, protectors of the people, and here they were slipping away in unmarked squad vehicles.

Reiko felt much more confident once they were away from the station and back in the field. Thankfully the Kunitachi protesters (“Murderers! Kunitachi murderers!”) didn’t follow them. If the man who owned the jewelry store recognized Kazamatsuri from the news and the station’s press conference where he’d offered a full apology to the Sada family, he didn’t say so.

She got to work noting down everything that had been stolen while Kazamatsuri walked the floor of the shop, trying to convey confidence. It wasn’t working, and that made Reiko feel horrible for him. He was a jerk most of the time, insulting her theories, bragging about his wealth, and flirting with suspects. But today there was a different man in his place. He looked tired and had even opted for a proper gray suit and a conservative tie. It was strange seeing him like this, and Reiko didn’t know what to say to him. He’d watched that poor woman die, and he’d somehow been forced to shoulder all of the blame.

The store tapes proved inconclusive in immediately identifying the thief, who’d entered the store in a mask and a cap, but with some video work in the crime lab they’d be able to make the image clearer. They were ready to return to the station, and Reiko saw Kazamatsuri standing in the corner of the shop, hands on his hips and staring into space.

She walked up to him, giving him a gentle tap on the shoulder. “Keibu…”

He turned, offering a weak smile. “Ah, Hosho-kun. We’ll break this one in no time.”

“I’m certain we will.”

He inclined his head, whispering theatrically. “I’m thinking it was a ring of jewel thieves.”

“Jewel thieves?” Reiko couldn’t help repeating back. Money had been stolen as well as jewels, and things had been taken at all price points. Wouldn’t jewel thieves go straight for the most expensive items? And there’d been no indication that more than one person was involved in the break in.

But her boss would not be dissuaded. “We’ll get ‘em.”

She decided to say nothing else about his theory. There’d been no evidence of a sophisticated break-in that a thieving ring would be capable of, but at the very least, Kazamatsuri was trying to work and that was a good sign.

Back at the station Reiko combed through her notes while the techies started analyzing the video. By the end of the workday, it was almost a certainty that the thief was the store owner’s cousin. The thief had worn a ski mask but somehow hadn’t thought to cover a distinct tattoo on his forearm. They’d issue an arrest warrant soon. It felt good to do real work again, to not cower inside the station. 

Her appetite picked up, and the number of protesters outside had dwindled. Only a handful remained. Reiko was just packing up to go out for the night when Namiki-san from the crime lab called out across the squad room to her. “Hosho-kun!” he called, “you’d better come see this.”

Kazamatsuri had already gone home for the night, tearing off in his convertible (with the top up since the incident) half an hour before. Reiko knew Kageyama was parked outside in his usual place waiting for her. She followed Namiki into the break room where a news story was blaring out from the television. 

“Massive security breach in Tokyo Metropolitan Police database!” read the headline at the bottom of the screen. Reiko gasped, seeing the severe faces of the news anchors.

“…headquarters have confirmed the breach sometime this afternoon. A hacker or team of hackers managed to bypass the security settings and have apparently entered the police personnel databases. Though the number of files breached is yet unknown, the troubled Kunitachi station appears to be the main target of this attack,” the news anchor said. “While every effort is being made to edit sites where they appear, the names and personal addresses of several police officers have been posted on message boards…”

Reiko sighed, shutting her eyes. If this was on the news now, it was hopeless. With Hosho Group connections, Reiko had managed to list only a post office box as her address. But if these hackers could get into the database so easily, it wouldn’t take much to trace the P.O. box back to her. And she had it far easier than the others whose personal information was now circulating.

“They don’t know who did this?” Reiko asked, seeing a handful of techies gathered around a computer. Looking over their shoulders, she saw Kazamatsuri’s home address along with Superintendent Takemoto’s. An entry for Hosho Reiko was also listed further down the page. All the names were people ranking above a regular patrolman or patrolwoman. The entry, posted on some message board, was titled “The Names of the Kunitachi Guilty.”

“Must have had some skills to be undetected long enough to get these files,” one of the other lab geeks was mumbling, clicking to a different tab on the computer and finding “The Names of the Kunitachi Guilty” posted once again. “This guy’s really got a problem with Kazamatsuri-keibu.”

There was nothing more she could do, so Reiko decided to leave. Perhaps a little Hosho Group money could go towards getting these message board posts taken down sooner. Or maybe even tracing the hackers. The patrolman walked with her once again, the young man fresh out of the academy and seemingly more nervous than Reiko herself was.

“Was your name posted, Hosho-san?”

“It was,” she admitted. “Someone’s got a grudge against the station.”

“Do you think it’s one of the protesters?”

She shrugged. “He’d be a fool to try it since the CCTV cameras have been recording the protest crowds each day. We’ll find him pretty quick if he’s already on our tape.”

They made it to the intersection, and the young patrolman cleared his throat.

“Hosho-san, are you sure I can’t walk you further than this?”

She smiled, patting him on the shoulder. “You’re kind, but I’m trained to handle myself. Thank you for your concern, and have a safe night.”

“You too.”

She crossed the street, sighing to herself. Things had just been slowing down. They’d gotten back out there to do their jobs, the number of people outside the station had gone down. With perfect timing, this hacker had taken it to the next level. Kazamatsuri and department leadership had been on the news, had offered a public apology, but it still wasn’t enough. She just hoped the hacker would be caught before he leaked any further information.

As expected, Kageyama was displeased when she arrived. He was standing outside the limo with the slightest panic in his demeanor. “My lady, are you deaf? I tried calling you several times, I left voicemails…”

“Then you’ve seen the news story,” she mumbled, seeing his sharp frown. “Sorry, I was talking with the others about it.”

“I’ve already seen to it that one of the Hosho Group’s Internet companies has removed as many entries as they can,” he informed her. Well, now she didn’t even have to ask him. Kageyama could act remarkably quickly sometimes.

She leaned back against the car, shutting her eyes. “And Kazamatsuri was just getting back into the swing of things. I hope they won’t give him too much trouble. None of this is his fault.”

“As a precaution, I’ve given the house staff the next few days off so they are not seen coming and going from the estate. So they aren’t then followed or involved. I’ve also doubled external security…”

“Kageyama, you don’t have to do that…” she whined. The only good thing about this was no further temptations from Ayaka-san’s cake. “It’s plenty safe without all of those people creeping around the yard at night!”

He shook his head. “My lady, your father’s already asking me to try and convince you to transfer to a safer unit. Traffic citations or records preservation or…”

She thumped the car door with her fist. “Alright, alright. I’ll allow the extra security if it means I can still work. Try all you like, but I will not be frightened out of this job!”

He allowed himself a small smile. “As expected.”

—

Reiko stood at her window in her pajamas, scowling. The more security that was hired, the more annoyed she grew. Luckily enough they were wearing all black, but she could still see them every time they passed along the perimeter wall. She shut her curtains and crossed her floor in a huff. Reiko had always felt safest in her home, had been comfortable here. She didn’t like how quickly things were changing.

Things were getting worse not better, and Superintendent Takemoto had already sent out messages that the station would see even more security the following day and that all protesters would be dispersed. Across town, Sada Kuniko’s wake was taking place in the morning, and with the news going on about the hackers non-stop, more attention was being drawn to the case. The wake would be mobbed, and the station would too.

She’d barely eaten, still imagining her name written so plainly on that message board. Kageyama had disappeared into his study after dinner and was probably on the phone coordinating with security and trying to get the Web postings taken down. But she’d gone on her phone only minutes earlier, searching her name and finding dozens of results, all listed under “The Names of the Kunitachi Guilty.” It was spreading like wildfire, and it was getting worse. 

People were starting to respond to the messages. While most were angered, chastising those who posted personal information of the police who kept Japan safe, there were others cheering them on. “Show the police that the power belongs to the people!” Reiko had read. “No police officer is innocent in this!” “Justice for Sada Kuniko!”

Finally Reiko had had to turn her phone off, abandoning it in her charger. She’d turned down her covers, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. As the minutes passed, more and more people were seeing her name, Kazamatsuri’s, the other people she worked with. What if the tide turned and more people started to support the hacker? What would he do next?

What frustrated her the most was that she wouldn’t be allowed to investigate anything herself. Cyber crimes fell under the jurisdiction of headquarters in Kasumigaseki. The case was definitely out of Kunitachi’s hands now. She was the one being directly attacked, her and her colleagues, but they could do nothing to help. Reiko was discovering that she didn’t like being the center of a case rather than the one investigating it.

She paced the floor in her anger. She had never been sidelined like this in her work before. How many criminals had she taken down with pride? How many lives had she helped to save? Trapped with her thoughts, Hosho Reiko the heiress who usually lived inside these walls was disappearing, and Hosho Reiko the police officer was taking her place.

She heard footsteps in the hall a short time later. With the security outside and no other staff in the house, she knew it was Kageyama. Reiko shut her eyes in frustration. The staff were being inconvenienced because of this. Of course they’d receive their wages, but she hated that everything was being turned upside down because of her. It had been so easy, before. She and Kageyama, chatting the evening away after dinner and working together to crack cases. There’d been an almost easy feeling to that, a sense of safety she’d taken for granted. 

Now he was outside her door with a baseball bat.

She would not be locked in tonight, and she padded to the door, pulling it open. He wasn’t startled, had probably heard her coming. He was sitting there in his usual attire, bow tie perfect, although she could see behind his glasses to his tired brown eyes. She knew he’d been out here every night, refusing to doze. She’d seen evidence in the kitchen sink, empty tea cups and even coffee cups.

“You’re not really planning to sit here all night are you?” she complained. “I won’t be able to sleep, thinking about you listening in like a pervert.”

He looked up at her, the baseball bat resting easily across his lap. “It was not my intention to eavesdrop. Only to ensure your safety.”

“If I wanted a guard dog, I would buy one.”

He grinned at that. “Certainly I make better conversation than a dog.”

She sighed. “Kageyama, you are not allowed to forego your own sleep to sit outside my door. I won’t allow it.”

He looked away, holding his head high. And people called _her_ a stubborn person! “I can nap during the day.”

“An abrupt change in schedule can do terrible things to your sleep cycle. What if you accidentally sleep through tea time?”

His confident expression faltered the slightest bit. “I would never.”

She patted his shoulder. “But what if you did? Come now, Kageyama, you’ve done everything within your power to keep this house and the staff safe. You’ve done everything to keep me safe, and I am thankful for it. But sit outside this door against my orders tonight and I will fire you, so help me.”

This time when he got up, he didn’t even bother to lean forward to deliver his harsh pronouncement. He seemed too tired to do it, setting his bat on the chair and leaning against her doorframe. Though he was usually confident and unflappable, there was a different Kageyama present before her now.

His heart seemed only halfway into it when he spoke, as though he was being rude only to humor her, to keep her spirits up. “You must be truly idiotic, my lady, if you think you have the power to fire me. The master has given me the strictest orders to see to your safety above all things, and I intend to follow his directive.”

She crossed her arms. “You’re still only human. Humans need to sleep.” Reiko cocked her head. “Unless you’ve been a robot all this time and haven’t told me.”

He didn’t even blink. “I’m not a robot.”

“Great!” Reiko said, lifting her hands and shoving him out of her doorway, making him stumble back in surprise at her sudden attack. “Then that means you require a human-style recharge.”

He protested but she knew he couldn’t push her back. Somehow he allowed her to push him all the way down the hall to his own room. Reiko rarely ventured inside, and it was simply appointed. A single bed, an armoire, a nightstand. A bookcase filled with more of his creepy manga that she didn’t want to know about. This and his study downstairs were the only spaces he had to call his own.

She remained in his doorway, hands on her hips. “You will sleep as you normally do. You will wake in the morning and have breakfast ready for me as you normally do. If you sit outside my room and lock my door, then I’m more liable to be scared. If you simply perform your duties as usual, then I will feel far safer. Is that understood?”

Perhaps it was because he was tired, but he looked at her with such kindness and sincerity that it shocked her. “My lady, if anything ever happened to you and I could have prevented it…”

It took a moment before she could speak. It was simply Kageyama, a tired Kageyama, not controlling himself with his usual poise. He never showed weakness in front of her. Rather, it was always Kageyama cheering her along, helping her in her weakest times and supporting her. She was certainly unaccustomed to encouraging him instead.

“You’re doing well,” she admitted, and she knew it was true. Sure Kageyama was always lurking about, interfering in her life, but these past few days had been different. Instead of Kageyama the helper he’d transformed into Kageyama the protector. And if he wasn’t careful, he was going to expend all of his energy to do it, at great risk to himself. “Just please rest.”

“Your breakfast request, my lady?”

He’d seemed to have gotten a hold of himself, was standing up straighter even with the bags under his eyes. She rewarded him for his devotion with a simple smile of gratitude. 

“Lemon pancakes with raspberry syrup.”

He put his hand over his heart, bowing to her. “As you wish.”

—

It was eerily quiet at Kunitachi station the following day. Any crowds were discouraged from forming, and a new slew of officers from elsewhere in Tokyo had the building surrounded. Despite being an easily recognized member of the Kunitachi team, Reiko had been forced to walk through a metal detector to enter the building and her bag had been searched by a team wearing latex gloves.

They were taking every precaution, though Reiko very much doubted anyone could get past that type of security and break into the building to harm anyone. Superintendent Takemoto, usually a kind and gentle man, was in an angered state Reiko had never seen. He’d sent his family to stay with relatives in Nagoya until everything had calmed down. His house had been pelted with eggs the previous night, though there’d been no other damage. A group of teenagers had been brought in for questioning about it already.

Ranking officers from Kasumigaseki were there, and none of the news they had was good. Instead of getting to work, Reiko and the other members of the Kunitachi team, investigators and techies alike, had been forced to gather in the station’s largest meeting room. Despite the Tokyo Metropolitan Police’s best efforts, the hacker or hackers had yet to be uncovered. A handful of arrests had been made in cases of people agreeing with the hacker posts and writing threats of their own, but the hacker himself was stepping up his efforts without shame.

Names and addresses were not the end. More posts were circulating, this time with photographs attached. The officers from headquarters posted them all on a bulletin board at the front of the room, and Reiko frowned at the sight of her own face looking back at her. It didn’t so much matter where she lived now that any angry people out there also had a face to put with a name. As of that morning, every single ranked member of the team had a large target on their back.

“Until the hacker or hacking team has been apprehended, everyone at Kunitachi has been placed on paid leave. Temporary administrative work can be found for civilian staff at Kasumigaseki but anyone cleared for field duty will not be allowed out. We deeply regret that it has come to this,” the lead inspector said. “It is strongly advised that if your address or face has been maliciously leaked onto the Internet to please seek temporary refuge with family or friends outside of the metropolitan area.”

There was a great deal of grumbling all around the room. Reiko was briefly alarmed at the absence of Inspector Kazamatsuri, but he was apparently “long gone,” Superintendent Takemoto said. He’d left that morning, flying down to Manila officially to assist in scouting a location for a new Kazamatsuri Motors plant. Unofficially, it had been strongly suggested that Kazamatsuri make himself scarce as the hackers’ threat against him was the strongest. Well, Reiko thought, he certainly had taken the idea of an absence seriously. She doubted any trouble would follow him all the way to the Philippines, and that gave her some sense of relief.

As the meeting dispersed, all members of the Kunitachi team were asked to remain at the station until a protective detail could be arranged for them. Superintendent Takemoto and the leader of the investigation met with Reiko quietly a few hours later. “Hosho-kun,” Takemoto said, nodding to her kindly. “We had arranged for three patrolmen to keep an eye on you, but that has been…overruled.”

“By your father,” the lead investigator said, raising an eyebrow.

Reiko felt as though her heart had skipped a beat, her stomach sinking with the realization. They knew exactly who she was now, how much money she was worth, and precisely how juicy a target she might be. But where she expected a complaint from her superiors for concealing many facts about herself, instead Takemoto patted her hand.

“Headquarters has always known who you are,” Takemoto said with a grin. “We’re the police, after all. But we understand why you’ve chosen this path. The truth of your…parentage will not be disclosed to your colleagues here.”

The investigator, Komoto-san, seemed a bit more serious. “We’re doing everything we can to ensure your safety, but if it gets out that you’re an heiress and receiving a public servant’s salary, that is, a position funded in part by taxpayer money…”

Reiko looked down. “I never meant to deceive anyone. I’ve wanted to work for the police my entire life…”

“And you’ve done fine work,” Takemoto replied. “Your position here is not in jeopardy. But we don’t know the lengths these criminals will go to. Because of your special circumstances, we’ve arranged a safe house for you to wait out the investigation.”

“A safe house? My home is perfectly safe…” She thought of the added security, her father’s silly lasers, and of course, Kageyama.

“Kazamatsuri-keibu argued the same,” Komoto said. “But those message board postings have been harsh, and they’re escalating. He declined the safe house in favor of his…business trip.”

“I’m part of the police too,” Reiko protested weakly. “I want to help catch whoever is responsible.”

“The decision comes from up on high,” Takemoto said. “I’m in the same predicament, with babysitters instead of being out in the field where I belong. It will be over soon, Hosho-kun, and I’ll find plenty of work for you. Please understand.”

“My father agreed to my being moved from my home?”

Takemoto and Komoto exchanged a knowing look before Takemoto grinned. “When he was informed that your picture was circulating, it was his idea.”

The Hosho Group’s leader, with enough power and influence to tell the police what to do. And he hadn’t said a word to her about it. All of this negotiating had taken place behind her back. All the comforts of home - her nice fluffy bed, her cozy sitting room, her elegant dining room…how long would she be expected to stay away?

There was a knock at Takemoto’s office door. “And that should be your protective detail,” Komoto said, getting up and opening the door.

When she saw the person at the door, Reiko wasn’t even surprised.

—

“I wanted to pick my own clothes!” she was protesting, irritated to find herself in a considerably smaller vehicle than she was used to. The limousine, her luxurious limousine, was temporarily retired in favor of a four-door sedan that didn’t even have tinted windows for privacy. “Blending in” was the phrase of the day now.

“I can assure you that I made adequate selections, my lady,” Kageyama said, waiting patiently for the stoplight to turn green.

Reiko turned red, fuming. “You mean to say that you’ve also chosen my underwear!?”

His eyes met hers in the rearview mirror. “Actually I telephoned your preferred store and asked them to supply you with some of your favorites. I picked them up before reaching the station, and the box is still sealed. I would never rifle through your delicates.”

But still, even if Kageyama hadn’t been sniffing around in her panty drawer, he had clearly gone through her other things. The trunk of the dark blue sedan was packed full of suitcases for her, though Kageyama himself had only a bag in the front seat with him. He was terribly strange to behold. Though he had a tendency to costume himself in strange clothes whenever he trailed her to crime scenes, he was doing much more than cosplay now. He’d introduced himself as “Undercover Mode” Kageyama.

He’d picked her up from the Kunitachi station without his usual livery, not even his bow tie. Instead he’d shown up in a t-shirt and jeans, topped off with a New York Yankees baseball cap. The only Kageyama thing about him was his glasses. And of course that know-it-all grin. He looked like…well, he looked normal, which was rather horrifying. Her own butler, dressed like an American tourist. Seeing his bare forearms and elbows came as enough of a shock. Reiko knew he had them, of course, but she’d hardly ever seen them in person.

The private security detail would remain on 24-hour watch of the house while they were away, though Kageyama alone was escorting her to the safe house. Nobody would expect to find the Hosho Group’s heiress in a simple two-bedroom apartment near Haneda Airport. Kageyama pulled into the parking garage under the building, keeping her locked in the car while he took all of her bags upstairs first. When he finally returned for her, she snatched the baseball cap off his head and flung it into the backseat of the car.

“That’s quite enough of that,” she complained, slamming the car door shut. “There’s nobody to see us here, and if I’m stuck with you it’s not going to be like that.”

“I thought I looked like quite the undercover cop,” he mumbled, frowning. 

She trailed him to the elevator, and despite the building’s rather humble exterior, the security wasn’t bad. There were cameras in the elevator and a key code to enter to get to their floor. Kageyama informed her that the top floor of the twelve-story building had no other residents, and he had programmed the elevator code himself. Not even the police knew it. They’d have to scale the building to get to her or parachute onto the roof.

“I don’t see why we couldn’t just stay at the house,” she complained as the elevator rose. “With your SWAT team walking around.”

“I’m merely…”

“…following Papa’s orders,” Reiko grumbled, “as you’ve told me. As my own boss just told me. It’s so embarrassing, all of this!”

The twelfth floor had four doors, two on either side of the hall. The Hosho Group had paid to occupy the whole floor. Kageyama had clearly been here ahead of time, escorting her to the second door on the right with his hand extended politely. When she stepped inside, slipping out of her shoes, she flinched. It was tiny! The whole place might have been smaller than the dining room back at the house, but Kageyama gave her the grand tour anyhow. 

The apartment door opened to a small kitchen and a living space dominated mostly by a sofa and dining table. There was a TV and DVD player on a stand to apparently serve as her entertainment during this imprisonment. The bathroom was more a closet, with a bathtub maybe a third the size of the one in her private bath at home. She also knew that she’d have to share with Kageyama, unless he visited one of the other apartments on the floor. Then there were the bedrooms. 

One room had only a futon and Kageyama’s pathetic suitcase. The other was cramped with a queen bed, her suitcases all arranged as neatly as could be managed. She also saw the box from the lingerie store, sealed as promised. She turned around to complain, to say “thank you very much, Kageyama, but let’s forget this and go right back home. You can lock me in my room for the next year…” but there was a sudden whistle, and Kageyama was in the kitchen, removing his favorite tea kettle from one of the burners.

She gaped at him as he opened the cabinets and pulled out two teacups. That he’d been here early to not only ensure that the building was safe, but so he could still observe tea time filled her with rage all over again.

“I can’t wait for this to be over!” she complained noisily, stomping her feet.

“My lady, please don’t disturb the neighbors. Don’t forget that we’re sharing this building with others,” he chided her, arranging his tea cups on a tray.

She could only watch him from the doorway, setting the tea service on the small dining table and returning to the kitchen to pull some small finger sandwiches from the refrigerator. “You’re having fun, aren’t you? You’re right in the middle of your own mystery!”

He looked at her, shaking his head. “The fact that you are imperiled makes none of this fun.” He gestured to the table. “Sandwich?”

She slammed her door without saying another word.

—

Reiko was chomping at the bit to escape, and she understood exactly why her father had arranged this in the manner he had. Papa knew she’d be eager to break out, to try and solve the case herself. For this reason he’d stuck her in this primitive jail and given Kageyama the key. He could hear her every movement - could hear her unpacking her boxes, washing her hands in the bathroom. And even if she escaped the apartment by dinging him on the head with his stupid tea kettle, she hadn’t memorized the code he’d used in the elevator. He’d only told her after entering the number that he was the only person in possession of the code. Maybe the stairwell door could be unlocked…

It was already dinner time, and Reiko was not settling in well. She was used to space, to the ability to walk around freely. Instead she could either hide in the tiny bedroom or sit out in the apartment proper with Kageyama. He’d taken her cell phone away and turned it off so that the hackers couldn’t break into it and use it to determine her location. So there was no way for her to check the news or receive any messages. Everything would go through him, Papa’s orders.

None of her fine dresses had been packed for her. Most of Kageyama’s “adequate” selections were far from fashionable. She was to be attired similarly to him, in t-shirts and denim. Reiko forgot she even had clothes like these, noticing that most of her t-shirts were from university events she’d attended or from the police academy. She opened her bedroom door, sulking in pajama bottoms and a purple t-shirt from her high school’s sports day. She had no jewelry, barely any makeup, and scuffed around in a pair of fuzzy pink socks. Not at all presentable for dinner.

She sat down as Kageyama pulled a small filet mignon from the broiler. The scent of it filled the entire apartment, and she pretended to ignore it even as it made her mouth water. She crossed her arms, facing the TV. Kageyama had clearly been watching it while she’d been unpacking, tuned as it was to some magical girl animated series. Reiko watched, annoyed, as a trio of cute girls fought back with the power of love.

“I want to watch the news. I want updates on the case.”

He was behind her in the kitchen, busy with a few pots and pans on the tiny stove. “No TV during dinner.”

Somehow he produced the remote control, and the magical girls blinked out. “Do I have an ounce of authority here, Kageyama?” she moaned, rudely putting her elbows on the table and burying her head in her hands. “I can’t use my phone. I can’t watch TV. I can’t even work!”

She smelled the food coming closer, hearing him gently settling the plate down. Only one course! “Filet mignon with a blue cheese crust and steamed vegetables.” She felt him nudge her elbow a bit with the edge of the plate. “Filet mignon,” he repeated. “With a blue cheese crust and…”

“Alright!” she shouted, sitting back up, though she made sure to slouch in protest. He brought over some utensils and a glass of water. Apparently he’d prioritized bringing her underwear instead of making selections from the wine cellar. He was hovering behind her while she sliced into her steak, and she turned around to scowl at him. “This apartment is so small! You’re too close!”

“My apologies,” he said quietly, taking a step back.

She ate in an awkward silence. It was usually this time of night that she had case details to hash out with him. He’d listen diligently as she spun her tale. Some part of him had to be missing it as much as she did. Kageyama thrived on trying to outsmart her, to solve mysteries and save the day when she’d lost all hope of determining a culprit.

“When are you going to eat?” she asked him, wondering why he even bothered standing on ceremony in this place.

“Not hungry, still full from earlier,” he said cheerfully. Ah, he’d gone ahead and eaten her portion of the tea time treats as well.

“Am I allowed to watch TV after dinner?” she inquired. Would she have to ask his permission for everything?

“When you finish your vegetables.”

She stabbed her fork right through a green bean when he said it, and when she turned to sneer at him, he was looking at her so fondly that she lost her will to shout at him. Her colleagues, her normal everyday colleagues, were with their families, hiding so they might not be found. They were frightened, for themselves and their loved ones. They didn’t have safe houses or a box of new underwear or butlers making tender, flavorful steak for them in a tiny kitchen. Shame hit her like a punch in the stomach.

Reiko got up from the table abruptly, setting her fork down. “I’m watching TV no matter what you say,” she said quietly, unable to let her apology out. She’d save it for later, maybe when he was in bed asleep and wouldn’t be able to give her another lecture.

She was fortunate, so much more fortunate than the others. People like her, people like Kazamatsuri, when trouble came calling, they could just open their bank accounts and float away. Her colleagues didn’t have those options. Her desire to watch the news faded, and she knelt on the floor in front of the DVD cases, listening to Kageyama clear her place at the table.

She managed to unearth a mystery movie. Well, if they weren’t able to work on the current case, at least Kageyama could use his brain for something. She popped the DVD into the player. “Kageyama, watch this movie with me.”

He was washing the dishes in the sink. “I thought you’d prefer some time alone. I brought something to read in my room…”

“Get over here and watch this,” she demanded.

It was strange as the opening credits began rolling, finding herself sitting on the small couch with her butler in the tiny apartment. Just last night they’d had the entire mansion, their roles clearly defined, and here they were now, hidden in plain sight watching a movie together like some…like some couple.

Her face flushed at the thought of it, and she grabbed one of the couch pillows, hugging it against herself. Beside her, she could see Kageyama in his strange “undercover” clothes, sitting with his legs up on the couch, arms around his knees as he studied the movie with complete attention. For most people, Reiko thought, this was a normal night. A small but cozy apartment, a quiet dinner, a movie. No fancy dining rooms, no mysteries to solve. And certainly no butlers. Just two people, relaxing.

She decided to pretend this was the truth, her real life, if only for a little while. She let the frustrations of the last few days slip away, the threats to herself and the threats to her colleagues. She shut off her sadness about Sada Kuniko. Reiko settled in, the details and dialogue of the film floating in and out of her hearing while she watched Kageyama from the corner of her eye. He’d done so much for her sake, to keep her safe and comfortable. He was always at arm’s length, her butler, but never like this. This domestic fantasy.

A hard day at the office and coming home to his smile, his cooking, and his thoughtful attention. The movie was so dull that her daydream started taking over. No more bow tie, just a t-shirt and an oven mitt. “Reiko,” he’d say, “how was your day? I’ve made you something delicious!”

They’d watch a movie, and when it got scary, he’d lean over and put an arm around…

“It’s so obvious,” Kageyama said dismissively, letting out one of his condescending chuckles. “It’s obvious that the younger sister did it. She clearly knew her killer, and they already know the stab wounds didn’t have a man’s strength behind it. What is with this detective character, he’s brainless for not figuring this out already!”

Reiko looked away, covering her mouth with the pillow to hide her smile. There was still over an hour left in the movie, and it was clear to her that he’d just spoiled the ending. So much for domestic fantasies.

—

When she woke the next morning, the cramped little apartment had one noticeable change. In the middle of the dining table was a tiny vase with a few daisies, some of her favorites, sitting inside it. Nothing compared to the flowers they usually had back at the house, but it meant that Kageyama had gotten up very early to arrange this for her. Sneaking out without her even hearing him.

He was already setting down a plate of French toast for her, arranging her silverware just so. His back was to her, and he was in a dark gray t-shirt that clung to him a little tighter than the one he’d worn the day before. She was used to the shape of him in his livery, the crisp lines of his jacket, the polish of his shoes. From behind now, he might have been anyone else. His body was lean and trim, and she caught herself looking down to the way he fit into his jeans. Caught herself thinking of him as a man.

He turned, smiling at her. “Just in time, I was about to wake you, my lady.” And with that address, the illusion faded once more. It was Kageyama, of course, with his glasses and his too honest face.

“You brought me flowers,” she said quietly.

He held out her chair as he always did, even in this tight space. “Ah, I needed eggs for the French toast so I ran around the corner. The florist was right next door. It brightens up the room a bit.”

“You ruined that movie for me, you know,” she said, having a seat. “We’ll watch a comedy next time, just so you can discover the plot as it unfolds like a normal person!”

He didn’t apologize, merely hanging back behind her again. She made it through one slice of her breakfast before turning. In this relaxed setting and in his jeans and slippers he still stood up straight, watching her with care in case she desired another helping or needed a refill of juice. “You’re hovering again,” she said. “Get a plate and eat breakfast with me.”

“That would not be proper.”

“There’s a lot about this arrangement that isn’t proper, Kageyama. Now eat.”

She heard him reluctantly grab another plate from the cabinet, and soon he was pulling out the chair across from her. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else, seeming mighty uncomfortable at the thought of dining at the same time and at the same table as his mistress. Uncomfortable at the thought of sharing the meal that was intended for her enjoyment only. He met her eyes briefly, accidentally, before looking down at his plate and pouring syrup on the food. 

“You’re a fine cook,” she said, “and I know you eat the leftovers the next day. You may as well enjoy it freshly made.”

He ate quietly but quickly, as if he wished to get it over with soon. Was dining with her such an abhorrent concept? He broke the odd silence sometime later. 

“My lady, I’m afraid we’re to remain here another night. An arrest was made last night, some threats were called in over the phone.”

“The hacker?” Reiko asked hopefully.

Kageyama shook his head. “A message board follower. The hacker continues to elude the police. After listening in on the police frequency, it seems they have no idea what to do and are bringing in additional experts.”

“Listening in?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. “Are you meddling in this case, Kageyama?”

He had eyes only for his plate. “I’m merely keeping up to date so that I can protect you as needed.”

“Or more like you’re bored being stuck here with me, and you’re cheating. If I’m being kept off the investigation, that goes for you too!” she protested, setting down her fork decisively. “If you’re listening in and they detect you, maybe they’ll presume you’re the hacker! I won’t allow you to embarrass me that way!”

He looked glum. “I’m being extremely careful.”

“That’s too bad,” she said. “You will wait for them to contact you moving forward. No listening in, no computer hacking, no mystery solving. I want to get out of here as much as you do, but they made it quite clear that Kunitachi is off the case.”

“As you wish,” he said, in a tone Reiko didn’t quite believe. 

—

The only positive thing about her confinement was being able to catch up on some reading. Kageyama had thoughtfully packed the small stack of books she’d had sitting on her bedside table at the house, selections from the mansion library. She hoped he hadn’t looked too closely at some of the titles - at least two of them were romantic books, and he teased her enough about so many other things. She didn’t need him scoffing at her choice of reading material.

She spent the better part of the morning and most of the afternoon on the bed that dominated her small room, alternating between several positions to stay comfortable with her book. He had apparently brought his own entertainment, though she couldn’t hear him in the room next door. He hadn’t left the apartment, though, that much was clear when she periodically heard the toilet flush and the sink turn on.

Reiko’s usual reading consisted of police reports, cold case files, other assorted paperwork at the station. She had to admit that fluffy fictional stories were a welcome distraction from the usual break-ins, thefts, and domestic disputes. She’d declined lunch, but by mid-afternoon, she was hungry and found herself padding into the kitchen in search of a snack. Opening the refrigerator, she found a few tea time finger sandwiches in plastic wrap, pulling the plate out.

By the time she put the plate down on the counter, she was astonished that Kageyama’s door was still closed. He usually seemed to have supersonic hearing, and ought to have dashed out of the room already as soon as he heard her movements or at least the sound of the refrigerator opening and closing. There was no interruption as she took the wrapping off the sandwiches, putting together a plate for herself and one for her butler. When was the last time she’d even done something like this? Maybe a late night studying during university or during the police academy, long after Karasawa had gone to bed.

She smiled at the memory of her former butler, who’d watched over her in ways she’d never even known about. The sweet old man had been so kind, had never had a harsh word to say to her. How the man had concluded that Kageyama was the right person to replace him often confused Reiko a great deal. Kageyama was ever-present, occasionally obnoxious, and determined to speak his mind despite his station.

Reiko grinned, lifting the plate for Kageyama. She’d neatly arranged two sandwiches for him, not too shabby. She moved to his door, knocking quietly. Perhaps he was absorbed in some perverted manga, and she shuddered at the thought. He would not be reading pornography on her watch! There was no response, and she gently knocked again. 

“Kageyama?”

After a few seconds, she opened the door to a surprising sight. It was Kageyama alright, still in his t-shirt and jeans, but he’d fallen asleep in a rather awkward position. He was lying on top of his futon, head leaning on his elbow, and a book sat open before him. She could even hear him snoring, and she snickered quietly. He’d fallen asleep like this, glasses on, though they drooped a bit low on his nose. Even away from the house, she had a feeling he was still keeping his strange hours, watching over her while she rested. Ignoring his own needs in the name of her safety.

It was in that moment that Reiko realized she’d never actually seen Kageyama sleeping before. He was curled up a bit, his knees slightly bent. He’d catch cold without a blanket soon enough. She set the plate of sandwiches back on the counter and moved into the bedroom, kneeling down before him. She set his bookmark in his book and closed it for him, nearly laughing out loud when she saw it was not the detective story she had anticipated. Instead it was a romantic novel by one of the same authors Reiko adored herself. Perhaps he’d grabbed it in error from the library, though everything Kageyama did was usually deliberate.

She was just reaching to slip off his glasses when she paused, slightly mesmerized by the sight of him asleep and so calm. How long had he been awake? And how long had he been lying here in this strange position, letting exhaustion win out? Seeing him like this, so vulnerable, so peaceful, only served as a reminder that Kageyama was simply a human being. Albeit an annoying one who meddled constantly in her life, but a human just the same who needed rest and books to read and French toast to munch on to keep his belly full.

If he was here in his tuxedo jacket and bow tie perhaps he’d look like the Kageyama-bot she was more used to, who was always awake and chipper when she crawled out of bed but equally alert and diligent when she was yawning and ready to turn in for the night. He looked younger, lost in the depths of sleep, his hair falling across his brow. The sight of him like this was all too endearing, and Reiko feared that the terms of this confinement were starting to warp her feelings.

In the house, in their proper roles and dress, it was easy to think of Kageyama as merely her helper. As a hired hand, no different from any other staff. Though she knew he was so much more than that, at home it was easier for her mind to place him in that role. She’d certainly never thought of old Karasawa as a friend so much as a wise, kind grandfather. But Kageyama _was_ her friend, even when he spent hours cooking and cleaning and driving her around. Work and mysteries weren’t their only topics of conversation, and he took an interest in her hobbies, chatting with her about them as a friend might.

And unlike Karasawa, Kageyama was of an age with her. Sure he was a few years older, but it was a slippery slope between Kageyama the butler and Kageyama the seeming bachelor who slept just down the hall. He was a far cry from ugly and despite his propensity for rudeness, he was charming. Skilled. Thoughtful. Reliable…

And now she had Kageyama the bachelor before her, the two of them shut up in this small space alone. How many people even knew they were there? Her mind was spinning in irritation, reminding her that it was foolish to think of Kageyama this way. Romantic feelings were absolutely out of the question. He was far too loyal and proper to reciprocate any feelings she might or might not have for him. She’d thought of these things before, in bits and bursts, the thought of Kageyama as someone who meant more. But she’d always talked herself out of it, having work or new clothes and hats to occupy her time instead.

But still Reiko watched him, listened to his snoring. She was lonely, she had to admit to herself. She put so much of herself into work, into those long exhausting hours, and now that she was in the midst of an unplanned break, she knew she craved attention, affection. Work and solving a case was its own reward, its own confidence boost, but it wasn’t everything she needed. She was lonely and being trapped here with Kageyama was going to unravel her if she wasn’t careful.

With little grace, she pulled his glasses away. Instead of waking, he let out a gentle sigh, rolling over onto his back with a small thud. He sprawled out with none of the proper butler poise, instead sending his limbs in odd directions and angles. There was a spare blanket near his futon, and she unfolded it, draping it gently over him.

“My lady.”

She froze in place, fingers still clutched around the edge of the blanket where she was tucking it around him. But he hadn’t woken up at all, was mashing his face into his pillow with a contented look on his face. He was saying her name…well, not quite her name, but he was addressing her in his sleep. The knowledge of that sent warm feelings coursing through her.

It was dangerous to stay in here any longer, to give in to her lonely thoughts, to project them onto Kageyama needlessly. Once she’d tucked him in properly, she got to her feet. With one last look at her dozing butler, she slipped the door closed and hurried into her own room, tea time sandwiches in tow.

—

Reiko finished her book, though she’d skimmed the last several pages and hadn’t absorbed much of what had happened. She was doomed, stuck in this stupid fantasy of her own creation. Where she and Kageyama were ordinary and where she had no reason to hide her shifting feelings.

Going through her book stack, she couldn’t find one that would change her tune. Not even her mystery books, the ones with the potential for a “the butler did it” resolution, could satisfy her. Things grew more unsettling when Kageyama knocked on her door to announce that dinner was served.

He was uncharacteristically silent as he bustled about the small room, putting down her utensils and placing a bowl of soup down. When he held her chair out, he seemed to be fixated at some point on the wall, looking anywhere but at her as she sat down. This was all her doing, she knew. He’d probably woken with that blanket covering him, and he’d known that she had done it. Though it was his job to take care of her, their roles had been briefly reversed. Reiko had only wanted to keep him from catching cold, but from Kageyama’s strange demeanor, he seemed to be embarrassed or ashamed of himself. And then he may have discovered the plate of sandwiches. In his own mind, he’d broken some rule, allowing his lady to be subservient to him. It was just a blanket, just a sandwich on a plate, truth be told, but the air in the room was charged now.

She picked up her spoon, hoping she sounded indifferent. She would not apologize for taking care of him when he’d been too exhausted to take care of himself. “Are you joining me for dinner or what?”

“No, my lady.”

She tried the soup. Despite the humble kitchen, it was as delicious as anything he’d have made for her back at the house. “Did you sleep well?” she asked, kicking herself mentally for it.

“I did, my lady. Thank you.”

Throughout the meal, his answers remained short, simple. Formal and polite. He was in such strange spirits that he didn’t even tease her. When she dropped her fork, something that on most days would earn a “How clumsy!” comment, he merely picked it up and fetched her a new one.

She moved back to the DVDs when dinner was over, frustrated with the distance that had grown between them in the matter of an afternoon. Reiko supposed it was for the best. If Kageyama acted informally with her, it might give her all the more reason to give in to what she was feeling. If he was a butler and a butler only, she could retain her dignity. Soon they’d be back in the house with cases to solve. Kageyama would be himself again, too, and they could put this strange situation behind them.

Reiko was discovering that it was much easier to be annoyed with Kageyama than to have romantic feelings for him. It was easier to say “You’re fired!” and “Fetch the car already!” than to imagine asking him for something like a hug. She would be running the Hosho Group someday, for goodness sake. She couldn’t be this indecisive, this caught up in silly feelings. But still, when she pressed play on the DVD and moved to settle in on the couch, there was Kageyama at the sink scrubbing the pots and pans, looking a million miles away. And it hurt.

“I’ve selected a comedy,” she announced airily, hoping to snap him out of his funk. “You can’t ruin this for me.”

“What if I know the punchline to the joke?” he called back, his voice not as arrogant as it might have been.

“Keep it to yourself then!”

“Very well.”

He insulted her at first by turning one of the dining chairs around to sit in, but she thumped the couch cushion beside her with her fist. “You’re an eyesore, I keep seeing you in the corner of my vision. It’s annoying, Kageyama. Sit over here.” 

Reiko knew she was going a little overboard, but Kageyama seemed to respond better when she was being a spoiled brat and not someone fixing him a plate and tucking him in. He dutifully sat beside her, though he didn’t seem as relaxed as he had the previous night when he had a movie mystery to solve. Despite the movie being rather humorous, neither of them let out much more than a chuckle.

Near the midway point of the movie, Kageyama’s pocket started ringing. He bounded off the couch with alarming speed, answering his phone with a rather curt “This is Kageyama speaking on behalf of Hosho Reiko-sama.” Before she could listen in on the call, which was obviously about the case, he’d slipped out the apartment door to talk in the hall. She rolled her eyes, sighing.

When the minutes started ticking by, she paused the movie, feeling his absence acutely. Perhaps this would be it then. This odd little experiment would end, she could get back to her fine clothes and jewels and Kageyama could get back to his own normal role. The limousine and his insults and his room at the other end of the hall. Everything would be right and proper again.

He returned a short time later, inclining his head in apology for her having to stop the movie. “That was Inspector Komoto. Sada Takanori-san turned himself in as the hacker. The police confirmed it and tracked the Internet activity from his home. It’s over.”

She perked up at that. Sada-san the suspected embezzler? “He did all this because of his mother’s death? The hacking, the threats?”

“Grief affects us all in various ways, my lady,” Kageyama said, though there was a smidgen of hesitation in his voice.

She stood, abandoning the remote control for the TV. “Can we pack up now then? They have him in custody, and since he’s confessed, it’s doubtful anyone will continue the threats. If he’s showing remorse for his actions…”

Kageyama shook his head. “We’ll stay here another night.”

“Why?” she protested, barely keeping herself from stomping her feet and disturbing the floor below. “He turned himself in.”

“Something’s not right about this, my lady. Kunitachi has the all clear, and Kazamatsuri-san is returning tomorrow, but I…I don’t believe the right person has come forward.”

Reiko rolled her eyes. “Kunitachi has the all clear! That means we can leave and you can go nose about as much as you want! Don’t you want to go prove them wrong?”

He finally met her eyes with utter seriousness. “If they’re wrong about Sada Takanori, then it means you’re still in danger.”

“Then we’ll investigate together! You and me. You can protect me all you like that way, but we can still get out of here. I’m getting cabin fever, Kageyama, and I know you are too…”

“I’ve doubled up on security at the house. Come morning, I’ll speak with the police again and if your father agrees to it, we’ll leave.”

“Why don’t I get a say at all?” She stepped forward, grabbing him by the arm and giving him a shake. Usually when she lashed out he was in a jacket, not a thin t-shirt. Her fingers instead wrapped around warm, bare skin, and she could see his face flush at the contact. “If the Tokyo Metropolitan Police have the man in custody, nothing is going to happen!”

“My lady…”

“Don’t you want to solve this properly, Kageyama? You’ve already been listening in on the police frequency and doing goodness knows what else behind my back. You’re probably going mad in here!”

“Of course I want to solve this,” he replied, looking to his feet.

“Then what is your problem?”

He pried her fingers off of him, still unable or unwilling to look up. “I would never solve a mystery again if it meant keeping you safe. That is the priority, and that will always be the priority.”

She could barely speak, feeling a little dizzy at the seriousness of his words. “Kageyama…”

“Please,” he begged her, pressing his hand to his heart and bowing his head. “For your own safety and because of my foolish conjecture about the culprit, please remain here one more night.”

She wanted him to lift his head, to meet her gaze. She’d spent the better part of the day scolding herself for letting her irrational feelings take hold, but Kageyama’s actions seemed rather intense themselves. Reiko was a trained police officer, but she was being kept here under lock and key. All of this under her “father’s” orders. But how much of those “orders” had come as a result of Kageyama’s suggestions? How much of this confinement was due to Kageyama’s own wish to see her safe? What exactly did Kageyama feel for her, that he’d go to these lengths to keep an eye on her? Perhaps it was wishful thinking on the part of a woman trapped in a small apartment, but it seemed like much more than a butler’s usual concern.

“We’ll leave at once in the morning?”

“Certainly. Provided it’s safe.”

She bit her lip. “I want to work. I want to get back to normal.”

“I know very much that you do, my lady. And I’m sorry.”

She shifted her weight to her other foot. He was still standing with his head bowed. She had only to ask for him to raise his head. She had only to ask, but she was almost afraid of what she might see in his eyes. She was afraid that she was not alone in these feelings, and that would only complicate things further. It was easy to dismiss her own feelings, but if these two hidden days were bringing a shift in even Kageyama’s feelings…

“Please finish the movie if you want. I think I’ll go wash up and then rest.”

“Good night. Pleasant dreams,” Kageyama said quietly.

She had her bath and then slipped back into the bedroom, changing into her pajamas. She managed only half a dozen pages in the new novel she was reading before her eyes grew itchy with sleep.

It must have been the middle of the night when Reiko woke from a strange dream, her own tossing and turning waking her up. Whatever the dream might have been about slipped away, but she nearly gasped in surprise when she heard the sound of a second person breathing in the room. She turned over, peering over the side of the mattress only to find the shadow of Kageyama sitting on the floor, his back against the bed and something like a small pillow in his arms. She hadn’t even heard him sneak in, and if she fell back asleep, it was likely she’d wake and he’d be gone as though he’d never been here.

She stayed there at the edge of the bed, brain swirling with confusion and affection and sadness all at once. What was he doing here? Why, when he had a room of his own? Why, when nobody could actually get in? Despite herself, Reiko rested her hand at the very end of the mattress, maybe an inch or two from stroking her fingers through Kageyama’s hair. Close, but not too close to wake him and dispel the strange magic, the bubbling feelings his presence produced in her. 

He was so close now, but tomorrow would change things back. And wouldn’t that be better?

—

As expected, Kageyama left no sign of having slept at her bedside when she woke. The small clock on the bedside table read 9:27 AM, and Reiko was astonished that she’d slept so late. Usually Kageyama woke her to serve breakfast much earlier. Opening her door and moving out into the apartment, she saw that his bedroom door was open and the room was empty.

“Kageyama?” she asked the quiet apartment, thoroughly confused. She took a quick glance at the vase of daisies on the table, frowning. Maybe he’d slipped out to buy more, a seemingly simple thing he didn’t really have to do. He’d left no note behind (rude) and no breakfast to be reheated (doubly rude). Reiko fumed, fumbling with cabinets and looking hastily through Kageyama’s room. Her cell phone was still nowhere in sight, and he’d dared to leave her alone.

Angrily, she grabbed the remote control for the television and flipped on the news. Some handsome chef was just finishing up a dish, drizzling some mozzarella and tomatoes with olive oil, and then attention was given back to the studio. They were about to go live to a press conference at Kunitachi Police Station! And here she was, stuck in this apartment.

The reporter was standing in the driveway of the station with several others. A podium was set up, and it seemed like Superintendent Takemoto and Inspector Komoto were ready to speak. Komoto approached the microphone first, and explained that Sada Takanori had confessed to hacking the Tokyo Metropolitan Police database and was deeply sorry for his crimes, both the threats against the police and for the embezzling of funds that had landed his mother in the questioning chair at the Kunitachi station to begin with. Then Takemoto took over, explaining that Sada was in custody downtown after his confession before opening things up to questions.

Reiko watched, wishing she could be there to support Kunitachi, when she spotted a suspicious looking fellow in the far left of the crowd of reporters. He was holding a small tape recorder and seemed to have a press pass on a lanyard around his neck, but there was no mistaking that stupid baseball cap.

“How could you be there without me?” she shouted uselessly at the TV, now that she’d spotted Kageyama there in the crowd. What a silly disguise! “What’s wrong with you?”

Perhaps he’d gone to speak with Takemoto in person and hadn’t expected the press conference to slow him down. Served him right, Reiko thought angrily. But eventually Reiko saw Kageyama raise his hand to ask a question, and Takemoto didn’t seem to notice that Kageyama was the same person who’d been assigned as her protective detail. She wanted to scream at her boss for falling for it. Did Kageyama really not stand out to these people?

“Hello there, Asahikawa Daily Mail. Superintendent Takemoto, are you absolutely sure you have the right man?”

Takemoto looked over at Kageyama rather curiously, and Reiko nibbled anxiously on her thumbnail. What the hell was Kageyama doing? And the Asahikawa Daily Mail? What kind of ridiculous cover was this? “Of course, we’ve extracted a full, detailed confession from Sada-san and…”

“I’m sorry, Superintendent,” Kageyama rudely interrupted. “But are you an idiot?”

“No further questions,” Komoto butted in, waving off the cameras.

“Kageyama, what the hell are you doing?” Reiko squealed, seeing the other reporters chuckling merrily at the Asahikawa Daily Mail reporter’s expense. And yet Kageyama moved forward, holding out his tape recorder.

“If Sada Takanori’s guilt is so certain, and he’s a genius computer hacker who can infiltrate the Tokyo Metropolitan Police database with such ease, then can you explain to the assembled press here how that’s possible if Sada-san can barely type his own name on a computer?”

The reporters’ chuckling quieted down. What in the world did Kageyama mean?

“Superintendent Takemoto?” Kageyama asked again. “Would you care to clarify the department’s position?”

And then it was a madhouse. Reiko watched Kageyama and his Yankees cap slip back into the crowd as the other reporters rushed forward. The reporter from the TV station Reiko was watching started elbowing her way to the front aggressively. “Is it true?” “Please tell us what Sada-san can and cannot do with a computer!” “Is this all one big coverup?”

Reiko was ready to pull her hair out at Kageyama’s audacity, especially when she saw him turn and wink at the camera from the news program she was watching. The nerve of him. And then there was the crowning achievement. The reporters parted as a familiar white convertible came roaring into the driveway. While Komoto tried desperately to reassure the crowd that the police had the right man, the reporters flocked over to Inspector Kazamatsuri’s car. 

With a new tan and a reassuring smile, he hopped out of his vehicle and waved to the crowd. He looked much more confident than he had before leaving for his “business trip” to Manila, so Reiko was fairly certain he hadn’t gotten much “business” done while he was away. But then again, given the stress he’d been under, she didn’t have much reason to blame him.

“Now now now,” Kazamatsuri told the assembled crowd, thoroughly upstaging the Superintendent and downtown team. “I’ve just uncovered the truth of this case, and I’m here to share it with you all!”

Or more like Kageyama had slipped a message to him in some way. Maybe he’d even signed it with Ho Shourei’s name, just for Kazamatsuri to believe it all the more. 

“The real culprit is not Sada Takanori. In fact…”

As the crush of the crowd seemed almost about to engulf Kazamatsuri, Reiko had lost Kageyama. The news channel she was following had zoomed in on Kazamatsuri, just in time for his big reveal. So when the panicked screams started a moment later, she didn’t know what was happening. The reporter herself was stumbling around, bumping into Kazamatsuri’s car.

Reiko held out the TV remote with shaky hands, switching to the next channel. The same panic, the same chaos. She switched channels again, her own fear rising. All the stations were tuned to the press conference, but Reiko only needed to hear a few words before dropping the remote and racing for her bag.

“Someone’s been stabbed here! Someone’s been stabbed!”

Taking the time to grab her purse, checking her wallet, she put on her shoes and raced out of the apartment in horror. What had happened? What the hell had just happened? Was Kazamatsuri hurt? Takemoto? Someone else?

Where had Kageyama gone? She’d lost him…

She jabbed the button for the elevator, only to realize there was a small keypad beside it prompting for the code Kageyama hadn’t even trusted to give her. “No,” she complained, wishing she’d paid closer attention. “No, you can’t leave me locked in here!”

Giving up, she looked to the stairwell. It wasn’t locked and she hurried through, although she realized as soon as the door closed behind her that she was required to enter a code to get onto any floor, the same as the elevator. Reiko refused to let her panic overtake her. She was smart, she could do this. Down the steps she hurried, wishing she’d opted for sneakers instead of heels. At least she was going down and not up.

Figuring she’d come up with a strategy when she reached the ground floor or the garage, she was ridiculously grateful when a man pushed open a door on the sixth or seventh floor. Much as she was technically supposed to be hidden, she waved the man down with something halfway between a scream and a “please wait.” To Reiko’s surprise, the man waited in the doorway for her to get down to him. By then, she had her badge out of her bag.

“Tokyo Metropolitan Police, please let me down in the elevator. It’s important!”

The man glanced at her badge for only a moment before holding the door wide and letting her in, punching in his elevator code. As she hurried inside, the man was still staring at her. From his jacket and the broom she just noticed in his hand, he was probably building maintenance. She shouted a hurried “thank you!” just as the doors closed.

She was on the complete other side of town from Kunitachi, but she didn’t care. The more she thought about what she’d seen on the TV, the way she’d seen Kageyama disappear from sight, the more Reiko worried that it might be Kageyama who’d been injured. The thought of him hurt, the thought of him stabbed, made her pace the elevator like a caged animal.

“Idiot, idiot, idiot,” she mumbled to herself, waving her hand in front of her face to try and stay calm, to not give in to her fear. To not cry at the thought of Kageyama being gone, her last image of him being that stupid wink at the camera. He was always insulting her intelligence, and now he’d gone and thrown himself in harm’s way. Now who was the idiot here?

She raced out of the apartment complex, hurrying for the street. It was a residential street, a few blocks from a main road, and Reiko was happy for all the time she’d spent in the academy working on her sprinting. Even if she was a little clumsy in her shoes, she made good time, managing to get to the street and flag down a cab in less than a minute. 

Out of breath, all she managed to get out was “Kunitachi…police…” and flashed her badge again. The taxi tore away from the curb with speed, but Reiko knew it was going to take ages to get there. With no phone, no means of communicating, she waited until she got her breath back before apologizing to the driver.

“May I please borrow your cell phone? I’ll be checking the Internet and then making a call, if that’s alright?”

Clearly remembering her police badge, the driver handed his phone over with shaking fingers. She quickly searched through news headlines, but there were no updates. Whatever happened at Kunitachi station really had just happened. She saw brief mentions of “an attack” and “an incident,” but nothing further. She dialed the number for the station’s help desk, but it rang and rang until it prompted her to leave a message.

She gave the driver his phone back, trying not to give in to her fears. But as the minutes ticked by and the taxi inched its way along in the mid-morning traffic, it grew impossible.

Please be alright, she prayed in her heart. Please, Kageyama, be alright.

—

It was just over an hour later when the taxi finally pulled up. She reached inside her wallet and pulled out a small wad of bills. “Just keep it,” she shouted, and even as the taxi driver protested, she was already out the door and racing down the sidewalk.

The entire area was cordoned off, officers everywhere, but she found a familiar face waiting at one of the police tape lines. It was the young patrolman who’d escorted her before. As she ran up, breathing heavily and noticing for the first time that she’d run out of the apartment building in her pajama bottoms and a t-shirt, her hair loose and still messy from sleep but wearing high heels, Reiko wondered how she’d managed to get the man at the apartment and the cab driver to even believe she was with the police. She probably looked like a crazy woman.

The patrolman, however, recognized her immediately, not bothering to check her badge. “Hosho-san,” the young man greeted her, face serious. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not,” she admitted, doing everything but looking down at the teddy bear pattern on her pajamas. “Can I get inside? What happened?”

“There was a stabbing…it was the strangest thing…”

“How many people were hurt?” she asked, desperate to get around him and into the station.

“It was the real hacker, he tried to get Inspector Kazamatsuri but…”

“I’m invincible!” came a voice from behind the patrolman. Reiko’s heart leapt at the sight of Kazamatsuri in his white suit, looking none the worse for wear save for dark circles under his eyes. At the sight of her, his lip curled in disgust. “Did you even look in a mirror when you left the house this morning, Hosho-kun? You’d better come inside.”

“Keibu…” Reiko murmured, the patrolman lifting the crime scene tape to allow her onto Kunitachi station grounds.

Kazamatsuri looked to be in fine spirits despite everything, patting her shoulder and shoving her toward the station. “He took a swing at me, but it’ll take a lot more than a butter knife to take out the heir to Kazamatsuri Motors!”

“Who was injured?” Reiko asked, trying to keep from screaming. If Kazamatsuri really was the target and he was fine, then who had been hurt? There were officers everywhere, crime scene techs surrounding Kazamatsuri’s car. “What happened?”

“Well since you must have been sleeping, Hosho-kun, I’ll tell you.” He rolled his eyes, seeming irritated that she’d missed his big moment. “There I was, about to tell the media about the true hacker, the real threat, when he comes racing at me. Of course, I saw him coming from miles away, super vision that I have, so I easily avoided injury. It’s of course unfortunate that someone was hurt, but even when they were taking him away in the ambulance, he waved to everyone. Got a big cheer too! He’ll get all the glory, unfortunately, seeing as how he brought the hacker down, putting himself in front of the knife like that…”

Reiko was shaking and nearly broke down on the station steps. “Who?” she interrupted, unable to take another step. “Who was hurt?”

Kazamatsuri sighed. “That headquarters cop, Komoto. I tell you, Hosho-kun, those downtown types will do anything they can to meddle in our business. He’ll be fine, of course, it was just a graze, but talk about overdramatic…”

Kageyama hadn’t been hurt. Kageyama was fine, she realized, but still her heart was in overdrive, racing enough to have Kazamatsuri staring at her in confusion.

“What’s wrong with you, anyway? Aside from everything I’m looking at right now…”

“What happened to the reporters? The media who were here for the press conference?” she asked, trying to smooth her messy bed hair with her fingers. “After an incident like that…”

“Right, right,” Kazamatsuri said, holding the door for her. “Standard procedure, they’re all here giving statements. And now that you’re finally here, it should move faster. Why didn’t you answer your phone anyhow?”

They entered the station, and everywhere there were reporters and camera crew people, Kunitachi officers jotting down everything they’d seen during the runaway press conference and attack. She ignored Kazamatsuri’s continued bragging about having solved the case so easily, her eyes desperately scanning the squad room. Finally, she saw the New York Yankees cap in the rear of the room and took off running despite Kazamatsuri’s complaint.

He looked up when he heard her coming, having been seated at an empty desk in the back to wait for his statement to be taken. Baseball cap, glasses, t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. He tipped the hat up, his eyes widening at the sight of her. And not just because of what she was wearing.

“My lady…” he choked out.

She stood her ground, knowing that she was crying, but she wouldn’t hide it. “I want to hit you so hard right now. So hard.”

He was surprised to see her. Was he completely stupid? Did he think she’d just sit quietly in the apartment and wait for him to return? “How did you get here?”

“That’s not important,” she said, wiping her tears with the back of her hand, quaking with anger. “How could you? Kageyama, how could you?”

He slowly got to his feet, meeting her eyes. “I’m next up to give a statement. It won’t take long, and then I’ll bring you home…”

“Asahikawa Daily Mail?” she hissed at him. “You could have been _killed_!”

“You can’t do this here,” he chided her quietly, suddenly bowing his head. 

Reiko turned to see Superintendent Takemoto had approached. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Let me debrief you, Hosho-kun. And then our…reporter friend can get you settled back in at home.”

She followed her superior officer, looking back over her shoulder to see Kageyama sit back down with what almost seemed like relief.

—

Sada Masahiro, the twenty-four year old son of Sada Takanori. Unemployed, unsociable, and in the absence of his mother, he’d turned to his grandmother Sada Kuniko for love and guidance when the world seemed unwilling to offer him any.

His father was a crook, of course, relying on his son’s computer prowess to slowly steal sums from his company. And Sada Masahiro had been very good with computers. Very good. His grandmother hadn’t known a thing about it, an innocent pawn in everything. She hadn’t deserved to die, and when she did, Sada Masahiro seemed more willing to put the blame on the Kunitachi police than on his criminal papa.

Superintendent Takemoto explained all of this with a calm that astonished Reiko, given how confident the police had apparently sounded about Sada Takanori as their culprit. “We owe it all to Kazamatsuri-kun,” Takemoto admitted. “The realization apparently hit on his flight back from Manila…”

Or more like Kageyama had managed to send him his own suspicions about Sada Masahiro, and Kazamatsuri had easily gone along with it. Sada Takanori had only turned himself in to keep his son from being arrested. Having lost grandmother and father both in such a short time, Sada Masahiro had finally left his computer and shown up at Kunitachi to exact his revenge.

Sada father and Sada son were both in custody now, and neither would be leaving prison any time soon. Most of the copycats and followers had been arrested in connection with Sada’s posted threats, and the tide had turned. Upon discovering their hacker hero’s criminal background, helping his father to steal, the movement online seemed to falter. 

Reiko took all this in with as measured a demeanor as she could manage. If Kageyama had suspected the grandson, he’d never told her about it. In the interviews, the signs had been there though. The shut-in son who claimed to have no idea what his father was up to. He’d been sitting in his darkened bedroom, watching a cartoon on his computer. That man, the master hacker, had played them all. It seemed only Kageyama had seen through him, even if he’d only heard about him through Reiko’s own recollections.

“Did Sada-san, the father, not really know anything about hacking?”

“As your friend recklessly mentioned, Sada-san knew next to nothing about computers, but a confession was a confession, and the son had been ruled out. An alibi that ended up, of course, being faked with the help of computers.” Takemoto sat back in his chair, sighing. “We wanted it to be over, just wanted to get back to normal. The more downtown interferes…”

“…the less we have to do,” Reiko finished for him. She aimed for downtown headquarters someday, perhaps a squad of her own, but for now, she’d work her way up with no help from anyone…save for Kageyama of course. 

Takemoto cleared his throat. “We’re keeping protective details for at least a month, but your circumstances will probably remain unchanged.”

“I’m going home,” she rudely insisted before he’d even finished speaking.

The older man cracked a smile. “Yes, you can go home. And again, you have nothing to fear. Your secret’s always safe with me. If Kazamatsuri-kun knew, I’d never hear the end of it, and I’m trying to make it to retirement in relative peace and contentment. You’re dismissed, Hosho-kun, please report in for your usual shift tomorrow. Back to what you do best.”

“Thank you, sir. I appreciate all your efforts.”

Dismissed, Reiko headed back into the squad room, trying to stay along the wall and in the rear so nobody took the time to stare down her strange attire. Kageyama found her first, still in his stupid cap. “I’ve been cleared to go,” he said. “I’m happy to take you directly to the house, provided it passes my security inspection…”

She hesitated for a moment, staring needlessly at the curve of his shoulder, the skin visible near his collar, the line of his jaw. He’d be back in his proper attire quite soon. 

She’d almost lost him.

Reiko shoved her feelings down. “The safe house needs tidying, and I’ll pack up my underwear myself this time, thank you. We’ll return there first.”

His bow was more subtle in their mixed company. “Of course. As you wish, my lady.”

—

The drive was a quiet one, their last together in the smaller car. The limousine had been parked at the house garage, and Kageyama would probably spend the rest of his day washing it before working with the security team and updating her father on the situation. Kageyama the butler would return in full effect: proper, hardworking, and considerate. Distant.

The stranger she’d lived with the past few days, the not-quite-but-very-much-still Kageyama, would be departing soon. That was the person she’d fled the apartment for, ignoring everything else in favor of reaching him, ensuring he was alright. It hadn’t been Kageyama the loyal butler she’d been chasing, and she knew it. It was the Kageyama who spoiled movies, slept by her bedside, told her he’d never solve a mystery again if it meant keeping her safe. That was the man she’d dropped everything for without hesitation.

And he would soon be out of reach.

They pulled in to the parking lot, ascending in the elevator to the top floor. Thankfully they didn’t encounter anyone who’d seen Reiko come running by in pajamas and heels, angrily flashing a police badge. The door was unlocked and the TV still on just as she’d left it - the remote control she had dropped to the floor, knocking off the back cover and dislodging the batteries.

“There was no breakfast,” she said softly when they were inside their small space again with the door shut. “And it was late. You weren’t here so I didn’t know what to do.”

He was crouched down, picking up the batteries and fixing the remote. “I deeply apologize. When I caught wind of the press conference, I put things in motion rather quickly. I did that without telling you, and in doing so, I erred greatly. Because of my rash actions and failing to anticipate that Sada Masahiro would show up for one last swing at Inspector Kazamatsuri, I might have compromised your safety. I’ll be telling the master about these mistakes, and if he feels my judgment was poor, I am prepared to tender my resignation.”

She stood there in the tiny kitchen, still in her pajamas, unable to think. “ _My_ safety?” she managed to whisper, so quietly that he turned around to look at her.

“Of course,” he replied, taking off his baseball cap to look at her properly. “You could have been hurt on the way to Kunitachi. You might have been foolish enough to leave without your wallet or identification. You might have not watched TV at all and instead burned the kitchen down attempting to make breakfast…”

“Kageyama…”

He chuckled bitterly, shaking his head. “…or not. Again, I should not have acted without telling you, and for that I am sorry.”

She stepped closer, hands balled into fists. “You could have _died_.”

He stood, straightening up. “I would have dodged a clumsy attempt like that.”

“How was I to know it was clumsy?” she cried, raising her voice. “How was I to know anything? All I saw was you on the TV, winking and patting yourself on the back for your usual cleverness. And then it all went crazy, and you could have been hurt. You could have fallen, been trampled on by those reporters. Kageyama, you could have died!”

“I wasn’t hurt. I didn’t die.”

She reached out, grabbing hold of his arms. She wanted to shake him or push him out the window, but despite her desire to give him a well-deserved thrashing, she leaned in before he could protest. Her arms wrapped around him tightly, and she gave in to her tears. Reiko didn’t care one bit if his ugly t-shirt was stained from them, nor did she care about propriety. He seemed to freeze in place, unsure how to proceed, but he patiently allowed her to cry herself silly.

Everything, every little annoying emotion that had been clogging her up the past several days came spilling out. The online threats. The safe house situation. The romantic feelings for Kageyama that had preoccupied her mind, and the heartbreaking feelings for a Kageyama who might have been lost to her forever. Reiko clung to him as tightly as she could, as though letting him go might allow him to vanish into thin air.

“I’m sorry,” he eventually began repeating over and over as she sobbed, as though all of his usual smart remarks had fled him. Had she ever been so upset in front of him before, so lost? She didn’t know how long they’d been standing there in the middle of the room, but his attitude softened and she felt his arms come around her. He merely clasped his hands behind her back, encircling her protectively as she refused to let go.

“If you resign,” she choked out, sniffing. “My god, Kageyama, if you resign I’d…I’d…”

“…fire me?”

A fresh round of tears threatened to spill. She was surprised to have any left. She was equally surprised when she responded to his lighthearted quip by tilting her head up and kissing him.

He immediately broke contact with her, trying to push her away, but she held firm. “Don’t,” she begged him, fingers twisted up in the fabric of his t-shirt. She was surprised by how right it had felt, tasting the warmth of his lips for the first time. “Please don’t…”

“It’s impossible,” he whispered almost harshly, though that didn’t stop him from pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbing it gently against the tear tracks on her face. The tenderness of this motion only made her want to kiss him again. “You’ve been under a great deal of stress, my lady, some of which I have exacerbated with my actions. Let’s pack up here and return to the house.”

“I’ve wanted to do that before today,” she admitted. “Before your ill-advised venture into journalism, I most certainly wanted to kiss you. This wasn’t all from stress…”

His cheeks reddened, withdrawing his handkerchief. She could only look into his eyes, but he was probably twisting and tearing the fabric between his fingers, unsure how to proceed. His employer’s daughter, the mistress of the Hosho house, had just kissed him - and that after he’d already broken protocol and allowed for her to hug him. His heart was probably about to explode. Now who was undergoing stress?

Kissing him though, Reiko had just discovered, had felt so wonderful - so simple a thing, a peck on the lips, and yet everything had changed. She felt liberated from the torment she’d put herself through, denying what she truly felt or dismissing it as an impossibility just as Kageyama had. Life without him by her side, whether he was teasing sharply or offering comfort, that was the true impossibility.

“I care about you,” she told him. “You said you’d give up solving mysteries to see me safe, even though nothing seems to give you more joy than that. How can you be so willing to sacrifice that happiness for my sake and still say this is impossible?”

He was struggling very hard with his words, wrestling with himself. “I cannot properly serve you if I’m giving in to selfish whims.”

She stayed firm. “You seem to be able to manage a great many things with no trouble. The house and the staff and my schedule and my safety and solving crimes and things Papa needs done and…”

“My lady,” he interrupted. “I cannot put my own feelings before yours. And you are truly idiotic to think I would…”

“But if our feelings are mutual then…”

“I’m certain that they are not,” he said abruptly.

This stunned her, made her stomach twist in knots. “You…you don’t…”

He used his handkerchief to clean his glasses, avoiding her gaze. 

“On normal days, you fire me an average of 6.7 times. I keep a tally for my own amusement. On normal days, I prepare breakfast, drive you to work, and then listen dutifully to you in the evenings. Your work is your priority, but now that you’ve been cut off from it, from the happiness and satisfaction it brings you, you have had more time to give over to fanciful thinking. You’ve been trapped here, as you’ve stated repeatedly, in close quarters lacking in privacy. We have spent nearly every waking moment together, so in light of that abrupt change in environment, the lack of boundaries between us in this small apartment, it is only natural that you’ve started to grow curious about me beyond my position. Since the start of my employment, you have not otherwise been on a date or engaged in any romantic encounters. Between that and your fears this morning about my safety…”

She narrowed her eyes, pointing angrily at him. So it wasn’t even about what he felt, but what _she_ did? He didn’t even believe she was feeling what she knew she was feeling? “You think I’m not serious!? You think I don’t even know my own heart?”

He pursed his lips. “I think that we’ll leave this place, and come morning you will see things differently. You will think of me only as Kageyama, your butler, once more. As is proper and expected. And I would be honored to continue serving you, if the master does not take issue with my actions the past few days.”

What was he doing? What was he saying? It felt like a door had just been slammed in her face. But the days and nights together, how he’d cared for her, how he’d given up his own comfort to see her safe…it was abnormal for a mere butler. For goodness sake, he was seeing her in his dreams, addressing her whether he was awake or not. Whether he’d give in to them or not, Kageyama’s feelings seemed to go way beyond his actual duties and expectations. 

It was Reiko who was suspect. Reiko who was lacking in seriousness. Did he think she liked him the same as a new purse or something? Did he really think her feelings were that fickle? After everything they’d been through? He couldn’t even wrap his head around the thought that she truly…loved him?

Her heart crumbling, her anger slipping away, she moved away from him. Only minutes before she’d been in his arms, cherishing every second, knowing he hadn’t been taken away from her. And not just because then someone new would have to be hired to chauffeur her around. Reiko wasn’t like that, and he seemed unwilling to see that.

“I’ll pack my things, and we’ll go home,” she said, her voice nearly cracking. She closed the bedroom door behind her, saving her tears for her pillow rather than for Kageyama to see this time.

—

The staff had yet to return despite Sada Masahiro’s arrest. Kageyama was going to give them a full week’s vacation, just so everything might be settled down and forgotten by the time they returned. It was overboard, Reiko thought, but apparently her father had agreed. Kageyama had said nothing about resigning, so she assumed her Papa had kept him on.

The house had never seemed so empty. After being in such a small space, the Hosho mansion seemed almost a cavernous waste of space. Of course, it was the grandest home in Japan, but there were so many rooms now. Her own bedroom made her feel tiny, insignificant. 

The drive home had been uncomfortable and awkward, Reiko refusing to speak with Kageyama even as he’d tried to make stupid small talk about the estate gardens or the menus he was planning for her now that he had the full kitchen at his disposal once more. She’d shut herself up in her room, wondering what to do. At least she’d have work again starting tomorrow, solving other people’s problems instead of her own. Kageyama doubted her sincerity, doubted the depth of her feelings, and for that, Reiko was lost.

She took her dinner on a tray in her room, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. She couldn’t look at him without remembering his cynicism from earlier that day. His total and complete rejection. He hadn’t even said “My lady, I don’t feel that way about you.” He’d only said it was “impossible.” He’d turned everything back on her - on her position over him, on the maturity of her feelings.

It was the middle of the night when she woke, having been tossing and turning, equal parts annoyed and humiliated. She’d left half her dinner behind, dumping the tray in the hallway earlier that night and keeping her door shut. She was hungry, and though she could easily call Kageyama to fix her something, she didn’t much want to see him yet. Thankfully he hadn’t been rude enough to lock her door, and he was not sitting outside it. In her slippers, she headed down to the kitchen.

Thinking of the snacks she could prepare without Kageyama knowing she’d been there, insulting him by fending for herself, she failed to notice the red security laser line at the base of the staircase. She so seldom left her room at night, and she was usually a solid sleeper. Having tripped the invisible line, a noisy alarm and blinking lights went off, startling her. She screamed in surprise, clinging to the bannister. Her father’s stupid lasers!

“My lady!” In moments, she heard noisy footsteps charge down the upstairs hall and then thump down the stairs. He was in the same t-shirt and shorts he’d worn back at the safe house. “My lady!”

She plugged her ears, trying to drown out the sound of the alarm. The lights came on in the room properly, and she saw Kageyama, eyes crazed and breathing heavily, looking around with his baseball bat in his hands, ready to take out anyone who might wish to harm her. He’d come running so quickly he hadn’t even worn his glasses.

“Turn it off!” she shouted at him. “Turn it off already!”

Seeing her there, crouching in fright beside the staircase but unharmed, he raced from the room. Soon the alarm was off, the system deactivated for the moment. She heard knocking at the front door, and she eventually heard Kageyama open it, speaking with the private security team, dismissing them. “False alarm,” she heard him say.

Once the door was shut and locked again, the rest of the mansion secured, Kageyama looked slightly less absurd when he came back to the staircase. She was sitting on the steps, embarrassed. 

“I just wanted a snack,” she admitted. “I forgot about the lasers…”

He sat down beside her with a heavy sigh. “That was stupid of you.”

She grinned, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry.”

“I thought…” Kageyama started, but clammed up soon after. He looked down, shaking his head.

“What?”

“I thought something had happened to you,” he admitted. “That you might have been hurt, that someone was trying to kidnap you…”

“It’s been quite a day,” she said quietly. “Now you know what my morning was like during your own moment of stupidity. Minus the kidnapping.”

“You do foolish things all the time, so I don’t know why…” There were dark circles under Kageyama’s eyes, uncertainty in his voice.

She turned to look at him, seeing him in profile in the dim hall lights as he sat beside her. He was deeply upset, and all she could remember was how he’d said “I’m sorry” over and over that afternoon, lost for words. “Kageyama, it was a silly mistake. You can still fetch me a snack, if you wish, since surely you know where the lasers are better than me.”

“I shouldn’t have doubted you,” he said bluntly. “Hearing you scream like that, I couldn’t bear it…”

It had only been a scream of surprise, no blood-curdling “Help, I’m being stabbed” noise or anything. And yet it had hit him so hard. He’d assumed her feelings were a sudden result of her confinement, his place in harm’s way. Now he’d been tested similarly. What was it he was feeling?

“I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to you,” he continued, so quietly she almost missed it. “Not as your butler, but as something much more. It was only for a few seconds, I assure you, but if you were gone and I’d never…”

“What happened to ‘it’s impossible’ and me seeing things differently back at the house?” she asked him. “Was it easier for you to just think of me as a silly girl who couldn’t possibly…” She frowned. “A silly girl who couldn’t possibly be in love with you for real?”

He perked up a bit, especially when she held her hand out and twined their fingers together. He didn’t bother to shy away this time, to shut her down. He wouldn’t say it out loud though, wouldn’t confess the truth of his feelings, not yet. “It’s still impossible, regardless of what we feel.”

“That was what Papa said when I wanted to join the police academy. And then when I finished and wanted to work out in the field, to be a proper investigator. It’s too risky, too dangerous. Or in his mind, it was something I simply shouldn’t have wanted. I have money and jewels and clothes, everything I could possibly need, but still I wanted that job, I wanted to get out there. He doubted what I felt,” she told him. “He didn’t believe I wanted it as badly as I did.”

“But you did.”

She squeezed his hand. “I did. I can be serious, Kageyama. About the things that are important to me. The things I’m willing to work for, no matter how impossible.”

“Why go for the impossible, though? When you might have anyone else to adore you?”

The almost easy way he’d said ‘adore’ sent a shiver of pleasure through her. Did he love her? Did he _adore_ her? “I deserve the best, Papa’s always said so. And I’m quite capable enough of determining what that might mean.”

“It would be thoroughly inappropriate.”

“Says the man who interferes in police investigations. Talk about inappropriate! I could rattle off a dozen paragraphs of the police code that you violate on a day-to-day basis. First, eavesdropping on all my interviews. Second, using private funds from the Hosho Group to intervene in official police business. Third, unauthorized visits to crime scenes. Fourth…”

This time it was Kageyama who acted first, leaning over to kiss her, resting his hand so gently on her cheek. She shut her eyes, basking in the attention, the surprisingly passionate kiss of a man she’d once been convinced could have been a robot. He’d probably harbored these feelings for a while, hiding behind his position and his loyalty, but just like Reiko, he had finally given in to what made sense in his heart. It wasn’t every day that those sorts of mysteries, those challenges and uncertainties, could be resolved.

He broke away from her before he got carried away, scratching his head in frustration. “I’m sorry…if that was unsatisfactory…”

She gave him a little shove, chuckling. “This is all fairly new for me too, Kageyama. But I’m willing to try.”

He was utterly serious when he spoke next, and it made her smile. “I will try to be what you deserve, my lady.”

“I’d expect no less from you.”

He rose to his feet first, holding out his hand to help her up. She was reluctant to let go, tired as she was and still snack-less. Tomorrow would see the resurgence of Kunitachi, Reiko could just feel it. Kazamatsuri could make his stupid predictions, Reiko could spend the better part of her day interviewing people who hadn’t seen a darn thing relating to a crime, and it wouldn’t matter. She’d fight hard at her job no matter what, and now she had something at home to work at just as fiercely.

Kageyama escorted her carefully up the stairs, bringing her to her bedroom door. She felt almost like she was floating, knowing it wasn’t just from being tired. When he made to bid her a good night, she stole another kiss from him instead, wrapping her arms around his neck and showing him just how excited she was to start something new.

“I’ve missed your bow tie. Wear it for me tomorrow,” Reiko said, standing in her doorway.

He bowed to her, hand to his heart. “Of course…”

“…and if I see that baseball cap again, I’ll set fire to it.” When his eyes widened, she only blew him a kiss. 

“Sweet dreams,” she said, shutting the door.


End file.
